But how often could that happen? I thought derailments are very rare in modern trains.
Edit: https://youtu.be/7Ao-24274Jw
This example is not in Montana, but apparently minor derailings are a thing. And the cars that are not derailed don't really look much better.
I'm not sure if that's a example from reality, it cannot be real that people are allowed and do drive trains over those "rails"?
John Oliver had a segment on train derailments a while back (can't find the YT video) and it seems that a lot of US rail infrastructure including the trains are just in very bad shape and there don't seem to be any federal regulations forcing them to invest whereas the environmental damage often ends up being swept under the rug.
Not that German rail is anything to brag about but I can't imagine we'd be allowed to let a train go anywhere near a track that looked like that.
I searched and found this database.
I don’t know how it compares to other countries but it’s a long list.
https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Rail-Equipment-Acc...
Scrolling down to the web data viewer and then right until you can order by date, descending, is ... impressive.
On the way back one time we were sitting for hours because a freight had come apart in two places on the only through track. I watched the crews hump couplers brought up from (presumably) Crater Lake past the bar car. Just a day working on the railroad.
They put the train together wrong once, without the crew car between the engines and first class. This meant that first class looked out over the engines. (They duct taped around the door to keep the snow and rain from pouring in.) About a half dozen of us stood there taking turns sharing bottles of wine and looking out the window in the dark as the train went over the Cascades en route to Crater Lake. Very cool.
On the way down one time, shortly after "lights out", there was an excited PA announcement "STAY IN YOUR ROOMS AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING METAL" and as I came to I noticed that the lights and ventilation were off and the train seemed to be coasting to a stop. The second announcement that anyone who saw "lights" outside the train should speak to a conductor was no more reassuring. Upshot was the dining car had suffered an electrical fire (coach apparently filled with smoke, but we were spared that in first class). They diverted to some huge rail yard somewhere in the vicinity of Crater Lake where they disassembled the train and put the wretched dining car at the end of the train; they catered in breakfast in Sacramento.
Dunno why all the best stuff happens just north of Crater Lake.
Northbound run looking out of the antique bar car: http://athena.m3047.net/train.jpg
There was a theater downstairs, I kid you not! http://athena.m3047.net/train-theater.jpg